


A Walk In The Park

by silveradept



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: A Shaw And Her Dog, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-25
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-28 10:48:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15047198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveradept/pseuds/silveradept
Summary: Shaw takes Bear for a walk to run off some energy. They succeed at this, and at something else that they didn't know they were supposed to do until after it is done.





	A Walk In The Park

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Small_Hobbit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Small_Hobbit/gifts).



"Oh, he's so cute! Spricht er Deutsch, puppy?"

"Nein," Shaw replied, suppressing the urge to roll her eyes. "Niederländisch."

"Eh?" The young woman looked confused.

"He's a Belgian Malinois, not a German Shepherd. And he's definitely not a puppy any more."

"Oh." The confusion did not abate. "Can I pet him?"

"If he wants you to."

Bear was in the mood for petting. Shaw noted that Bear was often in the mood for petting when the people doing the petting were conventionally pretty. Shaw wondered about how true the adage about babies or dogs as "chick magnets" really was. When she was out with Bear, everyone was far more interested in him than her. This suited her fine, and it meant Shaw could discreetly check out the people that were taking an interest in her and Bear.

Harold had handed her a lead for Bear's collar and suggested they both take a walk after she had returned with Root from another number hunt. She hadn't asked what Bear had tried to destroy this time, because it was clearly too soon after the attempt for Harold to be calm about it. Maybe when they got back, she would discreetly ask John. For now, though, Bear was enjoying the attention and Shaw was enjoying the downtime. It didn't mean she _relaxed_ , necessarily, but at least the alarms about her surroundings weren't blaring so loudly as to prevent thinking about anything else.

Having Bear along helped Shaw blend in so that she could people-watch. She'd always enjoyed seeing people going about normal lives, not having to know or care about all the things that went on while they slept or worked or jogged on the park. Terrorists and foreign affairs and a secret artificial intelligence controlling as much as it could were abstract thoughts to them. If they actually knew what went on, even in the name of their government, on a daily basis, most people would probably freak out a good deal.

Bear tensed up under her petting. Shaw followed what Bear was looking at, and saw enough to know that someone was in the park with a weapon, and probably intent to hurt someone. And heading somewhere there were kids playing.

She might not like kids around her, and definitely didn't want any of her own, but she felt they deserved to have innocence for as long as they could hold on to it.

Bear felt like a coiled spring, ready to act. Shaw stared at him for a little bit, before covertly unhooking the lead. A little exercise would probably do Bear a lot of good.

"Heads up!" Shaw heard from where there had been a robust game of Ultimate Frisbee going on a little while ago. Turning, she saw one of the flat discs sailing toward her, an errant pass from one of the college groups running around on the grass.

Training took over from there. Shaw snagged the Frisbee as it came her way, pivoted and flung it in the direction of the man she had seen heading toward the play area.

"Apport." she told Bear.

Bear took off after the Frisbee. Shaw followed at a pace that looked like an apologetic person following their dog that had slipped the lead, but that clearly wasn't going to catch him in time. Because Bear was moving so quickly, though, that meant Shaw covered the distance between where she threw the Frisbee and its eventual destination fairly quickly.

Shaw came up to the scene, where the man Bear had spotted earlier was waving a fairly large knife threateningly at people and shouting the sort of thing that a man with a knife would shout - lost love, revenge, making sure that "she" would pay for everything "she" did to him.

Then the Frisbee thwacked him solidly in the back of the head, causing him to stumble. In the next few moments, Bear leapt for the fluttering Frisbee, snagging it with his mouth before delivering all of the force of a well-trained and muscular dog to the stumbling man, who dropped the knife and hit the ground, leaving one very happy Belgian Malinois standing serenely on his back, tail wagging. 

"Hier. Good dog," Shaw said, smiling. Not too long after, uniformed police officers arrived and took control of the situation. Before they could ask get any questions, Shaw and Bear, back on his lead, melted away into the gathering crowd.

"Sorry about your Frisbee," she said to the guys she'd borrowed it from. Bear had been gentle with it, but there were a few spots where you could see the imprint of his teeth. 

"Are you kidding! That was way cool! You want to join the game?"

"No," Shaw said.

Bear whined slightly.

"But," she said, sighing, "I'll bet this one would happily run some throws down for you. The dog run is this way."

"Cool! Let me gather my buddies, and we'll give him all the exercise he wants."

Shaw's phone began to buzz as the man walked off to round up his friends. Shaw checked the number and answered.

"Hello, Harold."

"Hello, Agent Shaw." Harold's voice sounded drier than usual. He probably knew what had happened, then. "I was going to call and tell you that the Machine just gave us a new number, and that they were spotted in the park near your location..."

Harold was clearly enjoying this, perhaps thinking that Shaw was squirming with embarrassment, as if she were a child caught with a hand in the cookie jar. She started walking Bear toward the dog run.

"...but the police scanner just mentioned that a 'German Shepherd' came out of nowhere and jumped on him before he could do anything. Bear wouldn't have been involved in such a dangerous stunt on a simple walk to the park, correct?"

"He's fine, Harry." Root had taken up calling Harold that because she knew it irritated him. Shaw only used it when she wanted to provoke him. Harold needed to make a decision about whether he wanted nothing to do with Bear or whether he was going to be a helicopter parent to him. "Besides, we're getting Bear exercised by letting him chase a Frisbee with some new friends of mine."

"...good." Harold said, after a long pause. "I hope you and Bear have a fun and _safe_ time."

"We will." Shaw ended the call before Harold could add anything more. 

Shaw wondered how ridiculous it would look to have her sitting and waiting while a group of college guys took turns at trying to throw a Frisbee father than Bear could run. On some trite, terrible TV show, it would be the setup for some sort of harem comedy, with each of these boys flexing and trying to outdo each other for the honor of finding out that she wasn't into any of them at all. Shaw was pretty sure a show like that wouldn't have lasted a full season. Root would point out that there were plenty of seasons of various dating competition shows that were still going on, before offering her popcorn and starting the next episode.

Bear tugged on the lead, eager to get started.

"Okay," Shaw said, taking Bear off his lead. The first Frisbee guy smiled at her, took an exaggerated wind-up, and threw.

"Apport."


End file.
